WASHINGTON – Kamala Harris’ team is quietly considering potential candidates for attorney general, looking at who could become the top U.S. federal law enforcement official if she defeats Donald Trump, the federal criminal judge who led the Justice Department during his presidency. has caused chaos. he tried to reverse his 2020 election loss.
Harris, himself a former prosecutor, is known to have a good relationship with Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has overseen the sweeping investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and appointed special prosecutor Jack Smith, who is investigating two criminal cases filed against Trump. .
But Garland has led the Justice Department for more than 3.5 years and is slowly climbing the list of the longest-serving attorneys general in U.S. history. And Harris has said her potential presidency would not be a continuation of President Joe Biden’s administration.
There are many variables up in the air, including the timeline of a theoretical Garland departure at a critical time for the department, when many career employees are concerned about what the future of DOJ will look like if Trump wins, or falsely declares victory, as he did. in 2020. Garland — who oversaw the Justice Department in the aftermath of the biggest crisis since Watergate, when Trump tried to use Justice Department appointees to overturn his election loss — will likely stay on at least long enough to ensure a smooth transition.
Another important factor is the party composition of the Senate, which would need to confirm any potential Harris nominee if she takes over the White House.
Still, a few names have emerged for the position of the 87th Attorney General of the United States.
Four sources familiar with the Harris campaign discussions told NBC News that three key names are under consideration: North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, who was on Harris’ shortlist for vice president; former Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, who until earlier this year was the No. 3 official at the Justice Department; and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams.
Another name in the mix is Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., two sources say, although she is less than two years into the six-year term she was elected to in 2022, which would complicate matters , as the Senate is expected to be closely divided in the next session. If Cortez Masto were to leave the Senate to become attorney general, Nevada’s Republican governor could choose the state’s senator in the next general election.
Three Harris team officials said potential names are being floated for attorney general, but discussions are still preliminary as Harris focuses on campaigning and winning the election in 12 days. anything to the contrary is fiction,” a spokesperson for the Harris transition team told NBC News in a statement. “Instead, we are focusing on putting in place the infrastructure needed to be ready.”
Cooper, the longtime attorney general of North Carolina, is wrapping up his second term as governor of the state and may not run again this year. Cooper withdrew from consideration to become Harris’ vice presidential nominee over the summer, saying the timing was wrong. (Democrats had been concerned about a state law that would have allowed North Carolina’s far-right lieutenant governor to take power in Cooper’s absence while he campaigned across the country). The governor spoke at the Democratic National Convention this summer, where he talked about Harris’ leadership.
Gupta, who won Senate confirmation as associate attorney general in a 51-49 vote in 2021, is a former attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who headed the Civil Rights Division during President Barack Obama’s second term. Ministry of Justice.
Despite her close confirmation vote, Gupta has strong relationships across the aisle, and has won praise from many conservatives and law enforcement officials, including the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and even the National Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed three times Trump. The head of the national FOP said prior to Gupta’s departure as DJ’s No. 3 official that she had “brought people together” and “earned the trust and respect of the FOP and our membership.” Grover Norquist, the founder and president of American for Tax Reform, previously said that Gupta is “highly qualified, effective, principled and driven by a desire for common purpose and consensus.”
As of 2021, Williams is the first Black U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York – an office jokingly referred to as the “Sovereign District of New York” due to its size and perceived independence from the Justice Department headquarters. the job on a unanimous voice vote in the Senate.
Williams has overseen numerous high-profile prosecutions, including the conviction of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., on corruption charges; the continued persecution of New York’s Democratic Mayor Eric Adams; and cases against prominent figures such as Sean “Diddy” Combs, cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, and sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Harris’ campaign features numerous Justice Department veterans, including Tony West, her brother-in-law who, like Gupta, held the No. 3 position at the Justice Department. In the final days of her campaign, Harris is navigating tricky DOJ waters: she must present a case against Trump to the American people, while at the same time not making comments that Trump’s defense team could use in a future lawsuit that would further delay could cause or the DOJ-appointed special counsel could further complicate the election interference case against him, a case that Trump has already been able to reverse after the 2024 election.
On Tuesday, Harris will deliver her “closing argument” to voters across the country with a speech at the Ellipse, where Trump lied to his supporters about the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021, urging them to go to the Capitol and “fight like the hell.”
Trump regularly downplays the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol and praises the criminal defendants who carried it out, vowing to pardon an untold number of them during his first days in office. In a recent filing, Smith’s office said Trump bears responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack, saying the Republican candidate “intentionally incited his supporters to obstruct the certification of Biden’s victory.”
Although many January 6 defendants have told the courts that they were “duped” by Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and that they regret that they were gullible enough to fall for them in the first place, Trump has not backed down from the election lies that his lawyers have peddled. have maintained, were based in good faith and ‘not unreasonable at the time’.
The Harris campaign is preparing for the possibility of Trump claiming victory again, regardless of the reality, as even some of his allies expect him to do. Trump has set the stage, directing his anger at non-white cities in swing states, including Detroit and Philadelphia.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
